Telangana rocks Parliament, Sonia calls for order

Protests over Telangana continued to disrupt Parliament proceedings for the second consecutive day on Tuesday even as Congress president Sonia Gandhi could be seen marshalling her troops to bring order in the Lok Sabha.

Protests over Telangana continued to disrupt Parliament proceedings for the second consecutive day on Tuesday even as Congress president Sonia Gandhi could be seen marshalling her troops to bring order in the Lok Sabha.

When anti-Telangana MPs trooped into the well of the house seeking justice for the Seemandhra region, Gandhi tried to dissuade them from doing so.

At one point, she caught Anakapalli MP Sabbam Hari’s hand to prevent him from storming the well.

She was repeatedly seen gesturing the MPs to protest from the aisle and not troop into the well of the Lok Sabha.

She also had a word with Hari as soon as the house was adjourned due to protests, and was seen pacifying her party's Telangana MPs, asking them to not retaliate.

Further, when Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav rose to speak on the killing of five Indian soldiers in J&K, she directed party MPs from Seemandhra to remain seated and signalled them to maintain silence and hear what the union minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah had to say on the issue.

But, when BJP’s Yashwant Sinha accused the Congress of being with Pakistan, she was seen signalling her party MPs to protest.

There seems no immediate end to Congress' woes over its nod to the creation of Telangana.

In the Rajya Sabha, union minister JD Seelam had to face the ire of his pro-Telangana party colleague Palvai Govardhan Reddy who said Seemandhra members should go out of Telangana.

Seelam, who is a votary of united Andhra Pradesh, retorted, saying his comments were “objectionable”.

Some members from the treasury benches tried to placate both Reddy and Seelam. Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni was also seen advising the minister to not indulge in a spat.

As TDP members CM Ramesh and YSR Chowdhary raised “we want justice” and “save Andhra Pradesh” slogans, deputy chairman PJ Kurien warned them of action if they continued to disturb the house.

“I'll be forced to suspend you,” he said.

Leader of the opposition Arun Jaitley later said a civil war like situation was being created instead of resolving the issue through a consensus.

The Lok Sabha also witnessed frequent disruptions on the Telangana issue.